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Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay spoke to Garrett Bithell about the potholes of the music industry, feeling the love, and not being so self-obsessed.
For all intents and purposes, 2007 was a triumphant year for Groove Armada. The British dance duo, comprising Tom Findlay and Andy Cato, topped the charts with their latest long player, Soundboy Rock, and released the GA10 compilation, a celebratory retrospective of ten years in the business.
It may come as a surprise then that only two years before, Tom and Andy seriously considered knocking Groove Armada on the head – pulling the plug on the whole outfit.
“We were on a label called Zomba and I think we just got to the point where we had lost faith in them, and they had probably lost faith in us too,” Tom tells SX from London.
“So there wasn’t a lot of energy around. The album we did before Soundboy Rock [Lovebox] didn’t do very well; but that was largely because it just wasn’t supported. We were going on tour in the UK and there weren’t even any records in the shops!
“It’s very depressing when your relationship has broken down to such a fundamental extent that your record label is not even getting records into the shops. But record companies are like that – they’re very tunnel-vision. They can work on three or four projects at a time and if you’re not one of them then you’re out in the cold. They can be very lovely and then suddenly you won’t hear from them for six months.
“So we got to the point where we were lacking a bit of love from them and began to think whether this had run its course.”
But Zomba then fell apart, perhaps ironically. As Tom muses, it’s a comforting feeling, in the end, to know there are some things that are simply beyond our control.
Sony BMG came to the rescue. “They really felt we had another record in us,” Tom says. That record was Soundboy Rock, and in many ways it redefined the public’s perception of Groove Armada. It marked a notable departure from the multi-genre-influenced previous albums; one foot was squarely in the pop camp.
“It was the first album we did with us both being in different countries,” Tom reveals. “Andy was living in Madrid and I was living in London. We’ve got to a point in our lives now where we are quite established in the places we are; we’re both married, we both have children, and it’s not so easy to leave that behind. So a lot of it happened quite virtually – sending music back and forth on line.”
Then came the GA10 compilation. “It definitely feels like we’ve closed a chapter in our lives,” Tom says. “It’s a personal document, and that was nice.
“Now we’re in the process of reworking the way we do everything live – working on a new live sound and a new way of putting things across. And at some point we should probably write some new material; we’ve got an appetite there.”
But the music industry is in a state of significant flux at the moment – gone are the days when artists could make a veritable fortune from CD sales alone. As a result, Groove Armada are almost as well known to the listening public for producing music that has featured in sundry advertising campaigns, films and computer games.
“It’s a time of extraordinary change in the music industry,” Tom says. “It’s very hard to predict where things are going to go. It’s increasingly difficult to make a living in the music industry because not many people but CDs any more. You’re left with very few income streams available and selling yourself to the corporate man has to be done from time to time.”
Groove Armada are behind the latest Late Night Tales compilation, which was released last week. Running for over five years, the Late Night Tales series grants the world’s best musical artists, including Fatboy Slim, Belle & Sebastian and Air, the opportunity to delve into their music collections and create the ultimate late-night soundtrack. Tom and Andy treat us to a sublime selection of their personal favourites – tasty numbers from outfits such as Depeche Mode, Midlake, Marvin Gaye and the Cure.
“One of the things I love about being involved in music is being able to share it,” Tom says. “Soul DJs and funk DJs were always famous for blacking out the text on their 45s so people couldn’t work out what they were playing. I’m kind of the opposite of that – whenever I find a song I just want to play it to the rest of the world.”
So how does Tom balance his family life with his obligations as one half of Groove Armada?
“It’s fairly weird but it kind of works,” he says. “I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s nice to spend your time thinking about someone other than yourself. That’s really positive. There’s a part of the music industry that is very me, myself and I, and it’s not healthy to be constantly thinking that the most important thing is your career. So it’s taken a bit of the pressure off in a strange sort of way. I’m not so self-obsessed.”
Late Night Tales by Groove Armada is out now via Stomp. For more information on Groove Armada, visit www.groovearmada.com or www.myspace.com/groovearmada.
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